KeithMPhoenix

Obviously I can't advertise on here and I thank Chris for allowing me to comment on the agreement which I hope clarified some queries. Respecting the guidelines I cant provide full details however SWGFL will be able to provide further detail of who does and doesn't qualify.

No problem at all and apologies for the delay - obviously in relation to pricing, I certainly cant predict the future (wish I could :-) ) - however Matt from Adobe has provided the following which hopefully provides some guidance: "We can't give 100% guarantee but Adobe Education pricing has proven to be stable and competitive over time and programme changes are kept to a minimum for schools where possible. Subscription programmes form a core part of Adobe's goals as a company and, although there may be some changes in the future beyond our control, our expectation in the UK is that the average price point for school will remain static. "

Morning All I appreciate the rules around soliciting so I have checked with Chris Byers that we are able to post the following. It is from Matt Eccles at Adobe and hopefully clarifies the situation for you all. Adobe has a number of framework agreements and licensing programmes for schools in the UK. It is always advised to speak to Adobe resellers or Adobe directly ([email protected]) for advice on which programme suits the schools requirements best. The SWGFL has an established framework for schools to join that provides them with access to a 2 year subscription for Creative Suite CS6. This is licensed against the schools FTE count but allows deployment to school owned or leased machines on the whole site. The agreement is managed by Phoenix and runs until Feb 2016. Hope this helps.

If you are a school the price increase should not affect you. It maybe the case that the reseller is not understanding how the new pricing now works to ensure that schools do not get charged the increase.

Indeed - itd be boring if it was simple

Without boring you with all the detail - the pricing announcement is correct in that the pricing is going up - however Academic Pricing actually covers a vast array of organisations and not just schools. Many of the types of organisations that qualify for it fall under Government MoU's and various existing agreed pricing models and so even though the price on the pricelist goes up the actual pricing people pay does not as it is covered by these MoU arrangements. With this in mind the issue may be with a few organisations who now fall out this scope - but for schools you are fine as you are covered.

There is an awful lot that happened behind the scenes over the last few weeks however in essence this price increase only hits a tiny proportion of academic clients. It has come into effect and based on the percentages outlined but various existing MoU's and other caveats mean that the impact is not across the board.

As mentioned you can downgrade, the question will be as to what License Key you have been given and where that has come from. With the Agreement Number your software reseller maybe able to see what it is you are being given and advise from there. You would need that number if you were to contact the MS Activation Centre anyway so that would be the first port of call.

Ok - agree with the detail about VLSC , there are a number of aggregator frameworks out there that can work the same way and consequently there is no VLSC access, however not sure I agree as to why they will not provide you the keys.

There were issues there - however that is not how LAR's work - the Select Licences are reported direct to MS and all LAR's will buy at the same cost. There are cases where there are aggregated agreements, or LEA wide agreements where in some cases schools are not individually named, In addition there are situations where schools are affiliated to various frameworks. All are standard ways to procure, and depending on how they were reported to MS will dictate what will show up on a consumption. I would assume that the reseller would have some record somewhere - it would just be a case of then tracking it down.

Depends how it was purchased, many frameworks and similarly many aggregated routes to purchase out there may not have had individual school names listed, and it will then not show on consumption data. The reseller should be able to provide details, agreement numbers PO numbers or to distributors or MS directly. Hope this helps.

I cant quote you as we are not sponsors so I dont want to seen as touting for business - I sit on here just to help where I can as I appreciate these things can be a minefield :-). It depends on how you want to do it and if there is flexibility. You are right the terminal option can be very expensive but it should be less than the 40k you mention if you look at the plans and the various student options - we have also started to see schools look at alternatives and using the logical groupings around the Office options as a way to bring costs down however this does of course not provide the desktop experience of using something such as RDS, VMware View etc Your AER or EdLAR will be able to cost model all the options over a number of years so you can see whats best.

There are other Student options available now especially around Office - your AER or LAR (or MS Business Manager) will be able to talk to you about these.

Assuming you are refering to Select Plus, the part codes are 79P-04712 and P73-05876 Hope this helps.

A lot of it is to do with the negotiation to retain the additional discounts that were applied within the last MOU - this has been retained and there are a number of subtle changes that may be of interest. The agreements are still very much as they were in that there is EES, SESP, Select Plus, OVS-ESS, and School so there is nothing radically new, but some of features of EES have been modified to encourage 3 year rather than 1 year deals. Again would strongly advise you go and speak to your AER or you EdLAR or indeed the MS BM's to see the impact on yourselves.

Depending on what you are looking to do - it does not have to be School or OVS-EES - SESP is still available. Again its not a good fit for all but it will be for some.

Very much agree you need to compare apples with apples however they are also some genuine aggregation agreements out there as well which can lead to better pricing options. Biggest bit of advice I would say is if you are getting your servers covered get the requirment scoped out by a partner - the advice here could save you quite a bit depending on what you are doing and your set up.

Just to confirm - this is now live.

Should all be back to normal next week.

Its to do with the discount - the Select Agreement had a discount applied to it for schools and it was refered to as the Becta discount. It's this that is being refered to. As mentioned - EES/OVS-EES is not affected.

I can't dive into detail however you most certainly should not be being told that you have to purchase at commercial rates. Id suggest you wait to see how it plays out.

I assume you buy via an OVS-EES as opposed to an EES ? - if you are buying through an EES there are options.

Sadly I have come across this type of behaviour before. As outlined, once the order is processed details will be sent to you and you can then login to VLSC and you will be able to get your details from there. If they can not provide details of your Agreement, I would assume an order has not been processed and consequently I would refuse to pay and engage elsewhere.

We do indeed have both the Disti pricing and the LAR pricing. I will investigate!

One other thing - and I dont really want to muddy the water further :-) - the above what I put is correct, however there is something else happening this month which means that if you have a requirement, that is worth 300 points, you do have additional options. As mentioned - dont want to muddy the water, and the previous post provides the main facts that you need.